The MINI Interview with BIG Exclusive Artist, Tchmo

Our location and environment is often a huge influence on how we respond visually within our art practice. The things around us subconsciously seep into our everyday. I know I have been told I make work like someone from California. (Ha! what does that mean!) I am interested in how your location affects you. Talk about where you live and what you love about your place and how you think it might influence how you create work? Do you have an ideal place you wish you could escape to for art making?

I think I have to define my location first.
Do I live on the internet? I spend so much of my time at the computer that I sometimes wonder if this is the location that affects me the most.

Physically I live in Montreal, a place I relocated to from my native Australia a few years back. We have very distinct seasons here and I think that affects me and my work greatly. In Sydney, the climate is temperate so the season changes are very subtle.

My landscapes don’t exist in any particular place. They can evolve dramatically as I add and subtract elements.
Someone once described my landscapes as making them feel like they were in two places at once. I think modern communication often makes me feel this way too.

In the end, I don’t know if a specific physical location influences me more than the culmination of all the places, real or virtual, that I’ve seen and experienced. I guess the best place for me to make work is wherever I am with my computer.